Wednesday, November 27, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1864, the Union headquarters ship Greyhound exploded on the James River. The Navy suspected that Confederate fighters had smuggled aboard an explosive shaped like a lump of coal to destroy the boiler. Gen. Benjamin Butler and Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter were on the vessel but […]

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1789, Americans celebrated their first Thanksgiving under the new Constitution. George Washington had used his first presidential proclamation to set this date as “a day of public thanks-giving and prayer.” Thanksgiving is a day for celebration, with good food and, of course, drinks. Check out our […]

Monday, November 25, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1949, Richmond’s electric streetcars made their final run before being replaced by buses. The city had been using streetcars since 1888. To mark the transition, the decommissioned electric vehicles were doused in gasoline and set ablaze. Thanksgiving week means the spotlight is on football: professional, […]

Friday, November 22, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1753, Major George Washington of the Virginia Regiment led an expedition sent by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie across the Ohio Valley to inform French forces there that Virginia claimed control of the entire region. It’s high school football playoff time in the Commonwealth, but some […]

Thursday, November 21, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1945, Richmond novelist Ellen Glasgow died at 72 in the same house she was born in. Glasgow won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1942 for In This Our Life, and she is known for helping change the course of Southern literature away from sentimentality and […]

Wednesday, November 20, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette stopped in Fredericksburg as part of his grand tour of the United States. Lafayette was the final surviving Major General from the Revolutionary War. During the tour, he visited all 24 states in 13 months. Did you know that November […]

Tuesday, November 19, 2024 Good morning!  On this day in 1752, George Rogers Clark, “Conqueror of the Old Northwest,” was born in Albemarle County. Clark’s military excursions during the Revolutionary War helped secure land (then claimed by Virginia but later ceded to the U.S.) in the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and […]

Monday, November 18, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1618, the two leading officers of the Virginia Company of London sent instructions to the colony’s new governor, Sir George Yeardley. The document became known as the “Great Charter.” It allowed colonists to establish a general assembly, the first representative legislative body in the Western hemisphere. Those […]

Friday, November 15, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1860, Virginia Gov. John Letcher responded to Abraham Lincoln’s election as president by summoning a special session of the General Assembly to be held on January 7, 1861. The session eventually led to Virginians voting to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. Are you […]

Thursday, November 14, 2024 Good morning! On this day in 1910, Eugene Ely made the first flight from the deck of a Navy ship. There were no aircraft carriers, of course. However, the light cruiser USS Birmingham was retrofitted in Norfolk with an 80-foot-long wooden platform to serve as a runway. Ely took off, skipped […]